Six months after the death of Michael Jackson, the original master recording of his title track “Thriller” will be auctioned off on Dec. 20 to boost scholarships for the California State University Summer Arts program.

When Jackson worked on the audio and instrumental portions of the track in his studio, he was recorded directly onto a master recording. The recording was donated to Summer Arts by Grammy Award-winner Bruce Swedien, sound engineer for Jackson and other artists, including Ella Fitzgerald and Quincy Jones.

“It’s really heartwarming to have artists who care so much about students,” said Shannon Pringle, production manager for the program. “This donation and auction process was a labor of love.”

CSU Summer Arts is a three-week, system-wide program that has been hosted by one of the CSU campuses each year since 1985. During the program, successful professionals team with CSU professors to teach 16 different courses in visual arts, dance, creative writing, theater, music and media. For $2,000, college students and professionals can participate in the program, where they receive academic credit and engage in an art festival.

Pringle said Swedien taught a course on the art of sound recording in 2004 at Fresno State. After teaching the course, Swedien donated the master to raise money for scholarships for students in the program.

Since the recording was donated, Summer Arts had been assessing the value of the donation before it could be sold.

“We normally don’t auction donations as soon as they are given to us, but we had a really difficult time figuring out a value,” Pringle said. “But with Michael Jackson’s death, we realized we really needed to take care of this.”

The recording was estimated to be auctioned for about $6,000 at the Bonhams & Butterfields auction of Entertainment Memorabilia in Los Angeles. If the master recording is sold, Pringle said it may take anywhere from two weeks to two months to receive the money to be used for scholarship.

“When I talked with Bruce about the item going to auction, he was really happy about it, not only for the memory of his friend, Michael Jackson, but also because he really enjoyed his experience teaching at Summer Arts and really wanted to help the students,” Pringle said.

Ty Melvin graduated from CSU Dominguez Hills in 1998 with a degree in audio recording and was a student of Swedien’s in the 2004 program.

“I took the art of sound recording course specifically because it was a great opportunity to work with Bruce, who is one of my heroes,” Melvin said.

Through Summer Arts, Melvin said he was able to gain experience that cannot be offered in a classroom. His experience included recording a number of professional artists, such as a gospel group and a few of the guest artists who participated in the program.

“As a student, being able to record actual professionals is very different than recording your fellow students,” Melvin said.

Pringle said classes such as Swedien’s are rare opportunities for students, and receiving money for scholarships is essential.

“The auction is a great opportunity for Summer Arts,” Pringle said. “This is a very positive thing.”

Brittany Bottini can be reached at [email protected].